Reviews - Books

The second book I've read on cheating casinos (the first, "The Newtowian Casino" is also a cracking good read). It chronicles a team of mathematicians from MIT who join actors and cardcounters to make a mint from Blackjack. A true story, it's a compelling read, and particularly interesting as it goes into detail of the methods used (these have largely been beaten now by changed practices at casinos, so don't get any ideas!).

Jennifer Govermenet is a bizarre and amusing look at a potential future. A future where corporations have so invaded our lives, we take their names. Where we either go to a Pepsi school or a Mattel school, and where Rewards programs have their own armies. And in this strange world, John Nike orders his underling Hack Nike to contract out to the Police a kill on Hayley McDonald's to give street cred to a new product, Nike Mercurys.

This book is the first part of a trilogy about a mystical feudal Japan and the tale of a young man, orphaned by war and adopted into a powerful clan. Also gifted with near super-human stealth he becomes an assassin. Full of the usual bestseller ingredients (love, honour, betrayal, death) I found my response was the usual. I enjoyed it, but felt left with a little disappointment. Good but not great.

"Sho-Gun for the new millenium".

For a change, WG's latest takes place in the near forseeable future, and doesn't weave in any of his old characters. The protagonist, Cayce, makes her living from her acute allergy to brands. The more successful a brand becomes, the more allergic she is, so she is employed to guage her response to designs. She's more interested in "The footage", a mysterious film that eppears regularly on the net with no known source.

Like all of Gibson's books it sucks you in, races you off, but often leaves you slightly lost at the end.

The film, with Leo DiCaprio, doesn't do AG's book the justice it deserves. Much of the subtlety has been lost but then, what does one expect from a Hollywood film? The beach is the ultimate vision of some traveller's search for the perfect getaway from society - perfection both physical and spiritual. The book serves to show we eventually pollute and destroy that which we love. What fascinates is not just the fall of this beauty spot from grace, but the disintegration of the main character's sanity as it occurs. There is a profound sexual tension (broken and discarded early in the film, sadly) which pervades as well. Unfortunately Alex Garland's second book, The Tesseract, doesn't live up to the high quality of this first novel.